PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano inked her approval Thursday to changes in the state’s new employer sanctions law.
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The measure is designed to addresses some — but not all — of the complaints companies had with the original statute approved last year which allows a judge to suspend or revoke any business licenses of firms that knowingly employ undocumented workers. For example, the new law says that penalty cannot be imposed if the employee already was on the payroll on Jan. 1 when the statute took effect.
It also provides some new protections from prosecution to companies that take additional steps when screening prospective workers. And it says that a hiring violation at one location of a firm shuts down only that location and not the entire corporation.
But attorney Andrew Pacheco said he still believes the measure is too onerous. And unless lawmakers make further changes this session, he intends to pursue his initiative which would weaken the penalty.
Pacheco’s decision, in turn, resulted in Don Goldwater saying he does not intend to give up on his initiative.
Goldwater’s measure actually is stricter than what lawmakers approved. But he said he would have dropped it if he were sur that what Napolitano just signed would remain the law.
The problem, said Goldwater, is he does not want Pacheco’s measure, which he labeled “employer amnesty,’’ to be the only one on the November ballot.
“If it passes, it overrides this law,’’ he said. So Goldwater said he intends to keep gathering signatures.
If both qualify for the ballot, that could leave voters a Goldilocks-style choice: Are the procedures and punishments for companies in the law now too severe, too lenient or just right.
Pacheco said he believes some of what is in the law is unnecessarily harsh.
Under the terms of his measure, investigations of companies could start only if there is a written and signed complaint. Both last year’s law and the revised version signed Thursday by Napolitano allow for anonymous complaints.
Some business owners have complained that could allow a competitor or disgruntled employee to trigger an investigation which could be time-consuming and costly, even if no violation is found. But Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, architect of the original law, said there is a valid place for anonymous complaints.
Pacheco’s measure also contains language about what constitutes a “knowing’’ violation, a provision designed to provide some protections against having an entire company shut down — and putting all of its employees out on the street — because of what he said might be the decision of a single person.
“Our initiative is designed to punish individual wrongdoers as opposed to innocent employees who might work for a company who made a bad, or illegal, employment decision,’’ he said. But Pearce, however, said the legal definitions would require prosecutors to prove an employer had “actual knowledge’’ the person being hired was undocumented, something he said could be virtually impossible to confirm.
Pacheco, however, said his proposal does not amount to amnesty for those who knowingly break the law. He pointed to a section which actually would impose criminal penalties on those who knowingly accept a fake ID offered by a prospective employee.
Goldwater’s petition, by contrast, is at the other extreme.
Under his proposal, a single conviction of hiring an undocumented worker would revoke all of a company’s state licenses. By contrast, the law approved by the Legislature says a judge ma suspend a company’s license for up to 10 days for a first-tim knowing violation of the law. It takes a second violation in three years to put the company out of business.
Pearce was involved in helping to craft the Goldwater measure when he feared the Legislature would dilute the original law or repeal it outright. Pearce said he is satisfied enough with the way the law now reads, including the changes Napolitano signed
Thursday, to withdraw his backing of the Goldwater initiative — but only if Pacheco drops his.
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